142:, was overcomplicated, time-consuming and, due to the number of moving parts, inaccurate. While there was some concern that photography would distort the image, Sir Henry set out to explore the possibility of using photography, setting up a photography department at the Ordnance Survey in 1855 and also securing funds to build the "glasshouse", a photography building with an all glass roof to allow as much natural light in as possible for photography. The development and discovery of photozincography or zinco came about four years later, being first mentioned in Sir Henry's report to
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that up to 2000 or 3000 impressions could be taken from a single plate. Despite this, the process was not perfect: it did not reproduce a full colour picture, and until 1875 boys were employed to colour in the maps produced by this method. The process, while better than the pantagraph, still required a large amount of labour to prepare the zinc plates for pressing. However, photozincography began to be used fairly rapidly in
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The use of photozincography at the
Ordnance Survey was a great success, with Sir Henry claiming it saved over £2000 a year, from the invention of photo-zincography; the cost of producing a map of a rural district was reduced from 4 to 1 and maps of towns were reduced from 9 to 1. It was also claimed
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Sir Henry, despite being the person who oversaw and set up the photography department, was not the actual inventor. The head of the photography department at
Southampton, Captain A. de C. Scott, did much of the ground work and basic development on photozincography. Sir Henry did acknowledge the work
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I therefore handed this gentleman a copy of my Report, and desired him to read the account given of our process at page 6 of that Report, and to examine the copy of the Deed bound up with it, and not to show me the description of Mr. Osborne's process if it was differed from ours. After reading it,
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was coated in a mixture of saturated potassium bichromate solution and gum water, and dried. This was then placed under the photographic negative and exposed to light for 2–3 minutes. The bichromate/gum mixture remained soluble on the parts of the tracing paper that were shielded from light by the
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in 1861–64 and several volumes of historical manuscripts. Whilst the process of photo-zincography was invented mostly for use the
Ordnance Survey, The Photographic News stated that the process could also be used in the Patent office and would save vast amounts of time and money. The use of
153:(1828–1902) developed a similar process and for the same reasons as Sir Henry, to avoid using the tracing system of the pantagraph. While developed at the same time Sir Henry's process, however as Sir Henry explained to a representative of Mr. Osborne in the quote below, he publicized it first.
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The main advantage and innovation of this process over lithography was the use of zinc plates rather than stone ones. Zinc plates were lighter and easier to transport, could produce more prints, and were far less brittle than the stone plates originally used. The use of zinc plates was also the
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to remove all the soluble bichromate combined with ink. What remained on the zinc plate was a perfect representation in ink of the original composition, by virtue of the ink binding to the insoluble potassium bichromate.
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opaque areas of the negative, allowing it to be removed, leaving an insoluble ‘positive’ image. This bichromate positive was then placed on a sheet of zinc covered in lithographic ink, and put through a
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photozincography began to decline in the 1880s as better methods of reproductions were made available and in the 1900s the glasshouse was pulled down to make way for new printing presses.
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he said at once it was the same process, and I then told him it was useless for him to attempt to take out a patent as my printed Report had everywhere been circulated
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This method enabled the accurate reproduction of images, manuscript text and outline engravings, which proved invaluable when originally used to create maps during the
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Capt. A. de C. Scott: On
Photozincography and other photographic processes employed at the ordnance survey office, Southampton. Cited in Wakeman,
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Zinco or photozincography developed at the
Ordnance Survey out of a need to reduce large-scale maps more effectively. The original method using a
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three or four times. After removal of the paper, the zinc plate was washed in a tray of hot water (containing a small amount of gum), using a
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Proceedings of the Royal
Geographical Society of London, 1859–1860; Vol IV, Session IV: Earl De Grey’s Address; pages 109–210
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While Sir Henry James claimed to have invented the process, a similar system of document copying had been developed in
Australia.
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of Great
Britain during the 1850s, carried out by the government's Topographical Department, headed by Colonel Sir Henry James.
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Domesday Book, or the Great Survey of
England of William the Conqueror… Fac-Simile of the part relating to Cornwall
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in ether or acetone on glass). Once the negative had been made, a sheet of thin
19:"Zinco" redirects here. For the character in the Hellboy comic book series, see
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of Scott in the development and use of the system in the introduction to the
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An 1865 map showing the photography building and the
Ordnance Survey offices
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291:(Southampton: Ordnance Survey; London: H.M.S.O., 1992), pp. 57–60
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At this time, high-contrast negatives were made using the wet plate
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A page from the photozincographic edition of Domesday Book for
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upon exposure to light, allowing the printing of images onto
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but essentially the same process, known commercially as
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The foundation of this method is the insolubility of
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The Photographic News Vol 3, 82, 30 March 1860, p360
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Photographic processes dating from the 19th century
304:(Wymondham: Brewhouse press, 1970), pp. 46–49
23:. For the same character in an animated comic, see
16:Method for accurately reproducing images and texts
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276:Ordnance Survey: Map Makers to Britain since 1791
48:(1803–1877) in the mid-nineteenth century.
25:Hellboy II: The Golden Army § Zinco epilogue
225:A picture showing the photozincography building
113:which Sir Henry James claims to have invented.
41:, is the photographic process developed by Sir
175:. Sir Henry was even honoured by the Queen of
339:James, Sir Henry (1803–1877) surveyor,
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213:The photography building and Henry James
342:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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181:reproduction of Domesday Book
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87:method (a solution of
73:photographic negatives
237:Anastatic lithography
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65:bichromate of potash
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151:John Walter Osborne
109:origin of the name
396:Printing processes
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391:Printmaking
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253:References
144:Parliament
140:pantograph
365:Wakeman,
146:in 1859.
85:collodion
231:See also
188:Gallery
117:History
173:Europe
79:Method
317:p. 46
177:Spain
71:from
59:Basis
39:zinco
69:zinc
46:FRS
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